TV is doing its best to get people involved in nature

In his intelligent and thoughtful article on the reasons why children have become isolated from nature (The nest generation, November 8), Mark Cocker drew some rather misleading conclusions about the effects of natural history television.

The idea that TV programmes such as Autumnwatch help to distance viewers from actually experiencing the natural world for themselves could not be further from the truth. Immediately after the first broadcast, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Martin Mere centre in Lancashire received a huge influx of visitors. Many of these were local families who had not previously realised there were flocks of wild geese and swans right on their doorstep.

Nor is this an isolated example. Just as Delia or Jamie's recommendations can cause supermarkets to sell out of cranberries or nutmegs, so the "Oddie effect" has drawn viewers to visit locations featured on Bill Oddie's programmes for more than a decade.

It is also a bit unfair to accuse programmes such as Springwatch and Autumnwatch of failing to show nature in all its "unscripted, messy and dangerous" reality. By definition, live television cannot be scripted. Neither the producers nor the presenters know if a particular brood of blue tits is going to survive - or indeed whether the wildlife is going to show up at all. This, perhaps, is why so many new viewers have been attracted to these live broadcasting events, as shown by the extended coverage of Autumnwatch on the BBC's children's channels.

The viewers of programmes such as Springwatch also participate in large-scale scientific surveys run by the BBC's partner organisations, including the Woodland Trust. In doing so, they not only leave the comfort of their sofas to observe and record wild creatures for themselves, but also make a significant contribution to the scientific record - helping phenologists to monitor the impact of climate change, for example.

Finally, BBC Learning's Breathing Places campaign, which aims to get viewers back to nature by joining conservation initiatives in their local area, shows the BBC's commitment to increasing the numbers and range of people involved with our natural heritage. It seems to be working; last June more than 200,000 people attended events linked to the campaign.

Television has been blamed for many of society's problems, but young people's lack of engagement with nature should not be laid at its door. As the evidence shows, wildlife broadcasters are doing their best to buck the trend.

· Stephen Moss is a producer at the BBC Natural History Unit. A collection of his Guardian Birdwatch columns, This Birding Life, is available from Guardian Books for £12.99 inc p&p on 0870 836 0749 or visit www.guardian.co.uk/bookshop